Augustine Birrell
|
The Right Honourable Augustine Birrell KC |
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| President of the Board of Education | |
|
In office 10 December 1905 – 23 January 1907 |
|
| Monarch | Edward VII |
| Prime Minister | Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman |
| Preceded by | The Marquess of Londonderry |
| Succeeded by | Reginald McKenna |
| Chief Secretary for Ireland | |
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In office 23 January 1907 – 3 May 1916 |
|
| Monarch |
Edward VII George V |
| Prime Minister |
Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman H. H. Asquith |
| Preceded by | James Bryce |
| Succeeded by | Sir Henry Duke |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
19 January 1850 Wavertree, near Liverpool, England |
| Died |
20 November 1933 (aged 83) London, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Political party | Liberal |
| Spouse(s) | Margaret Mirrielees (d. 1879) Eleanor Tennyson (d. 1915) |
| Alma mater | Trinity Hall, Cambridge |
Augustine Birrell KC (19 January 1850 – 20 November 1933) was an English Liberal Party politician, who was Chief Secretary for Ireland from 1907 to 1916. In this post, he was praised for enabling tenant farmers to own their property, and for extending university education for Catholics. But he was criticised for failing to take action against the rebels before the Easter Rising, and resigned. A barrister by training, he was also an author, noted for humorous essays.
Birrell was born in Wavertree, near Liverpool, the son of The Rev. Charles Mitchell Birrell (1811-1880) a Baptist minister. He was educated at Amersham Hall school and at Trinity Hall, Cambridge where he was made an Honorary Fellow in 1879. He started work in a solicitor's office in Liverpool but was called to the Bar in 1875, becoming a KC in 1893 and a Bencher of the Inner Temple in 1903. From 1896 to 1899 he was Professor of Comparative Law at University College, London. In 1911 Birrell served as Lord Rector of Glasgow University.
His first wife, Margaret Mirrielees, died in 1879, only a year after their marriage, and in 1888 he married Eleanor Tennyson, daughter of the poet Frederick Locker-Lampson and widow of Lionel Tennyson, son of the poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson. They had two sons, one of whom, Frankie (1889–1935) was later a journalist and critic and associated with the Bloomsbury Group. Birrell found success as a writer with the publication of a volume of essays entitled Obiter Dicta in 1884. This was followed by a second series of Obiter Dicta in 1887 and Res Judicatae in 1892. These, despite their titles, were not concerned with law, but he also wrote books on copyright and on trusts. Birrell wrote, and spoke, with a characteristic humour which became known as birrelling.
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